golden string of fate
by Empress of Everything
Summary: The downfall of the King's heart would come at the hands of a tiny blonde inhuman woman and her love. A girl like no other. She was a creature, she told him with a smug grin, called a Homunculus. The Homunculus Greed, in fact. {Fem!Ed, Homunculus!Ed, AU}
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _I've written a lot of crossovers/crossover ideas, but this one has to take the cake for weirdness. Just...go with the flow, okay?_

* * *

Her entrance into his life and into history was marked by a blatant, shameless invasion of his private rooms.

She was unlike any woman he'd ever seen before. Long gold curls framed her face and slipped from the loose knot secured on top of her head. Gold, heavy lidded eyes surveyed him and the room easily. Red markings adorned her face, arms, and upper chest like tribal tattoos. Her body language spoke of ease, casual unconcern, and a dash of haughty disdain. As for her clothes…

Well, the less said about _those_ , or the lack thereof, the better.

He'd never seen anyone wearing clothing like she did. Tight black pants, ( _could they even be called that?)_ , clung to the shapely lines of her legs like a second skin. Her black top had no sleeves or back and barely covered her front. A blood red flower was stitched into the the abdomen of the shirt. Her small feet were bare and hovered an inch or so above the ground. Enormous tattered leather wings flapped lazily behind her, keeping her suspended in the air.

She was the most stunning woman he'd ever seen.

She also didn't seem intimidated by the sword pointed at her throat.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Su-Won demanded.

She ignored him.

Instead, her attention was taken by the room around her. Her eyebrows, with the red lines painted above and below, shot up. "You're a king, right?" Her head turned so their eyes met. "Why do you live in such a dumpy place like this?"

Su-Won found himself sinking into the depths of her rich gold eyes.

The downfall of the King's heart would come at the hands of a tiny blonde inhuman woman and her love. A girl like no other. She was a creature, she told him with a smug grin, called a Homunculus. The Homunculus Greed, in fact.

It would be a story for the ages. The love story of Su-Won, King of Kouka, and Eden, the Homunculus Greed, would be whispered about until it had long passed into myth.

But she would not be the one to tell it.


	2. Chapter 2

Her hands caressed the nape of his neck, the clawed fingers scraping the skin lightly. Under her ministrations the knots in his neck relaxed and his breathing evened out.

After two years of her near constant presence, he felt at peace with her around. No longer did she terrify him as she had when she'd first appeared. Her murmurs in his ears, the quiet beat of her leathery wings, the scrape of her claws, it all was familiar.

She didn't ask him for anything. After their initial meeting and her mockery of him, they'd struck up an uneasy partnership. She didn't want anything though. Just to observe him. He got the feeling she was just bored. She had no other reason to hang around him.

Eden would hover behind him everywhere he went. She tagged along to all his meetings, pointed out inconsistencies in his documents, and mocked most of his decisions. Despite her irreverent behavior and extreme lack of respect for him and his office, Su-Won grew fond of her. She was the only other person who understood his ambition.

She was strong, greedy, and ambitious.

Just like him.

Sometimes Joo-Doh caught him talking to the empty air. He couldn't explain what was going on then and tried to wave away his general's concerns to the sound of her raucous laughter. The uptight Sky General was a constant source of amusement for the female Homunculus. Her constant, invisible harassment of him during serious meetings ensured Su-Won's poker face was bar none in Kouka Kingdom.

Less amusing to her were the attempts to set him up with a noble lady of the land. Molten gold eyes seared into his soul every time the subject came up. Her rage and jealousy made him quail inwardly. For all her devotion to him, he knew she had the power within her tiny body to destroy him, to ruin him and all his greedy ambitions. She was the living embodiment of Greed, after all. His life was in her clawed hands.

At least, that's what he thought.

* * *

One night was all it took. One night of lost control, heated kisses, and tangled sheets.

And her fate was sealed.

Homunculi weren't supposed to consort with humans.

The penalty…

…was death.

* * *

The next day, she was gone from the palace and his life without a trace.


	3. Chapter 3

"You came back," Su-Won whispered disbelievingly.

Almost a year to the day since she vanished, Eden reappeared in the palace. She'd waited, silent as a ghost, seated on Su-Won's bed. The heavy black cloak that enveloped her hid her in the shadows. He hadn't seen her at first. He never expected to see her again.

"Eden…"

She rose, the cloak slipping from her shoulders. With two steps, he was before her. One hand reached out to brush against her cheek, to feel the warm, soft flesh underneath his fingers. She wasn't a figment of his imagination; not a specter conjured by his sleepless, fevered brain. _She was real._ His hands ghosted over her now-exposed back. There was something different about it. Her back had always been so smooth, so unmarred. He realized what it was when she tore away from him with a gasp. His hands had brushed the stumps of her wings, the place where they had been hacked off at the root.

Her hands scrabbled to catch his wrists, stopping him from exploring her skin further. "Su-Won," she said quietly. "You wish to know why I went away."

"Yes." Surely it had been some great matter that had taken her from his side. She wouldn't have left him otherwise…

Not of her own free will.

Seemingly reading his thoughts, Eden smiled sadly. From among the folds of her cloak on the bed, she lifted a black wrapped bundle. "This is why," she said simply, holding it out to Su-Won. Confused, he took it.

In his arms was a tiny child with fuzzy gold hair. His tiny mouth was pursed, puffs of air coming out as he breathed gently. He didn't have the chubbiness of a newborn or the slimness of a baby who'd grown into his skin. He was somewhere in between. Under his eyes were thin red lines, the same markings his mother had on her face. But this child…

"His name is Icarus," Eden offered quietly.

Even before the baby blinked his eyes open to reveal deep teal irises, Su-Won knew in the depths of his heart that this was his child. His firstborn child was a son, a son born to the woman he loved so deeply it hurt. He raised his head and opened his mouth to ask the burning question lurking in the back of his mind, but again Eden read his thoughts. Sinking back down onto the bed, she sighed. One clawed finger traced her red facial marks absently.

"After… _that night_ …" she began. "I'm sorry I left. Believe me, I didn't want to go. But somehow…Father knew what I had done. My two year disappearance told him that his beloved Sin of Greed had disobeyed and tried to make her own path. I had to leave when I did or he would've sent Envy or Lust after me." She didn't notice the thin line of blood trickling down her cheek from her claws. "And by extension, you. I returned, Su-Won, because I couldn't put you in danger. I showed my face to Father, listened to him rage and plot, then vanished again. The fact that I was able to hide Icarus for so long still amazes me." Eden's fingers tapped a restless rhythm on her knee.

"Then…Father found out that I had a child." Her gold eyes slid closed into an expression of unimaginable pain. "Pride ratted me out. I was forced to fight him, Lust, and Envy to keep Icarus from being turned over to Father. I defeated all three but that was when Father caught me. He placed a death curse on me." Su-Won flinched, his arms tightening around his son. A death curse? He didn't believe in that sort of thing, but with the evidence before him, he almost had to.

He shifted the baby to one arm, reaching for his love, and sighed as Eden leapt up and curled into his shoulder. "I know you'll have more children, no doubt with that Lili girl they're always trying to marry off to you but…" her head thunked against his collarbone as her voice dropped. "But I'm glad I could give you your firstborn."

"I'll never marry," he swore, wrapping his arm tighter about her small body. A lie, they both knew. A king had to marry. He had to have more than one heir, no matter his personal desires.

She knew this would be the last time he held her. The death curse placed upon her was unbreakable. So even as his kiss deepened and hot tears cascaded down her cheeks mixing with the blood from her cut, she clung to him. Three days. Three days until the light of day would be lost to her. She drank him in, relishing his touch.

Till at last, she had to step away. Eden's hands trembled as she wrapped her cloak tight about her. Deliberately, she didn't look at her son held in her beloved's arms. Her heart was already broken beyond mending; if she risked a glance at Icarus, she knew she wouldn't be able to leave him.

"Goodbye, Su-Won," she whispered. "Goodbye…Icarus…"

Her cloak fluttered in the mid-afternoon air as she leapt out the window. The cloak billowed around her like her wings once had. Her goodbyes were always final.

Eden never looked back.

His eyes settled on the baby laying in his arms. He was so tiny and fragile. But…he was _his_ son. No one looking at him could dispute his heritage. Icarus, the sole heir to Kouka Kingdom. With a tenderness he hadn't known he possessed, Su-Won cradled his son.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** _And here's the last chapter of this crazy, crazy crossover. Enjoy!_

* * *

Kye-Sook came at the first ring of the bell to see his king standing with his back toward the door, staring out the open window. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Summon a council. The Generals should all still be here, correct?"

With raised eyebrows, Kye-Sook nodded slowly. "Yes, Your Majesty, they are. I shall summon them at once." Still Su-Won did not turn. Kye-Sook bowed to his back and hurried off to gather the Generals, wondering what had come over his King.

The aura in the meeting room was mostly confused. All official business had been handled in the preceding days. Had something come up in the hours since then? They rose, bowing deeply to their King as he entered. Mundok's single sharp eye was the first to pick out the bundle tucked in Su-Won's arms. The former Wind Tribe General hissed out a breath of shock that caught the attention of the others.

King Su-Won was expressionless as he stood before his council of Generals. "I will not brook any questions," he said tonelessly, "about the origins of this child. All you must know is his mother was a woman very dear to my heart and she is now dead. _My son_ , Icarus, is my heir. You will show him the honor that is due to him as Crown Prince. That is all." He moved to leave the room but Geun-Tae stopped him.

"Your Majesty, may we see your…son?" The last word was spoken with the barest hint of insolence. Su-Won's eyes fluttered closed for a heartbeat, then reopened.

"Very well," he said cooly. He unwrapped the child from the dark blanket and passed him to the nearest General, who happened to be Tae-Woo. He did a cursory check of the baby, frowning over the strange red lines on his face, and hastily passed him off to his Grandfather.

In Mundok's arms, Icarus opened his eyes. He was struck by how old the baby's eyes were. He couldn't be more than a few months old, and yet there were centuries hidden in his teal irises. "Indeed, Your Majesty, this is your child." Mundok's voice was sad. As he handed Icarus to Geun-Tae, he remarked quietly, "His mother must've been a stunning woman."

All the Generals turned to look at their King.

"Yes," he said, showing the first signs of emotion he'd shown all day. "She certainly was."

* * *

Three days later, Eden, the Sin of Greed, died alone and unmourned by those who had known her.

The only one who would mourn her death was the King of Kouka, her lover. Not even her son Icarus would mourn her passing. He would grow up the only child of Su-Won, usurper and King killer and yet one of the best Kings Kouka Kingdom ever had. His father never spoke of his mother and Icarus never asked. He would wonder occasionally about the faceless woman who's hair he'd inherited, who's marks he bore but he would never dare to ask.

All alone in a deserted part of the many forests of Kouka, Eden died happy, with a soft smile on her face, knowing her son would be safe with his father.

Somehow, the story spread about their King falling in love with a forest spirit and how the spirit gave him a child. As the years passed and the tale continued to spread, it evolved into what was somehow near the truth. The love story of Su-Won, King of Kouka, and Eden, the Homunculus Greed, had finally passed into myth.

An eternal love story between two different races and the child that brought them together just before the end.


End file.
